Problems

Most of the country’s efforts for biodiversity conservation, addressing climate change challenges, preventing or reversing environmental degradation, and sustainably using natural resources are being hampered by the insufficient financial resources available.

Responses

Key policies and governance approach

The Ministry of Finance adopted the Environmental Fiscal Strategy [1] in 2018. The strategy aims to steer or reorient public and private investments as well as budgetary expenditure towards supporting the achievement of the country’s objectives on climate change adaptation and mitigation and the protection of natural resources. The strategy includes five priority action axes:

  1. identify and implement actions that promote the efficient use of public resources and lead to savings in administrative expenditure by promoting good environmental practices;
  2. provide technical assistance to municipalities for designing financial management policies, methods, standards, and procedures that include environmental concerns/objectives;
  3. propose environmental taxes and incentives to induce a change in production and consumption patterns in the population and create innovative financing instruments to encourage green entrepreneurship, environmental research, and recycling;
  4. identify fiscal and economic risks posed by environmental contingencies and formulate mechanisms to mitigate their fiscal impact on the State; and
  5. identify climate financing opportunities to support the implementation of projects and programs focused on environmental conservation, protection, and improvement.
Opportunities

Supporting — perhaps through technical assistance and knowledge exchanges — the implementation of Guatemala’s Environmental Fiscal Strategy would help the country to steer or reorient public and private investments and budgetary expenditures, and make the country more likely to achieve its goals on climate change adaptation and mitigation and protection of natural resources.